


peaceful sleep

by burstaffinity



Series: because i love jolly ranchers [5]
Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, yet another work from an unfinished au orz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burstaffinity/pseuds/burstaffinity
Summary: elusive but possible, sometimes
Relationships: Metsu | Malos/Shin | Jin
Series: because i love jolly ranchers [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193516
Comments: 11
Kudos: 28





	peaceful sleep

**Author's Note:**

> y-yeah check the tags... i have this au all outlined n stuff but i need to like. write it. anywho in this au jin and malos and lora are alive now and lora is their driver hooray

This wasn’t the first time he had watched Malos in his sleep, but it felt like the first time he had noticed himself doing it. It was the other way around before they had died: Malos watching Jin sleep in aging technology to eke a few more years out of his dying body. But now they shared the same bed. Now Malos didn’t have to worry that Jin’s body would give out on him. Now they had a home, one where they could sleep peacefully.

 _When_ they slept peacefully.

Thankfully, that was the case tonight. Malos dozed on his side, hands tucked underneath his head. Just like Mythra. Now that Malos was under Lora’s influence it was easier to pick up on the similarities between the two Aegises. They were like twins, more so than Mythra and Pyra--though Malos was a great deal better at cooking, as long as he followed instructions. That was good not just for his taste buds and overall health, but because it was nice having help in the kitchen. He sometimes caught himself wondering why hadn’t they done that before. There were many things they did now that they should have done before, and he couldn’t help but wonder: what state would the world be in had they done that? The possibilities plagued him as he ruminated over what they did, what they could have done differently. Lora’s guidance to let the past be the past only helped when she was there; when he was alone with nothing but his thoughts, he couldn’t shake them off.

Having a living body beside him helped. He gently rested a hand on Malos’s hair, pulling his thoughts and focus to the present, to the man in front of him. What was he dreaming about? He couldn’t tell from Malos’s expression. Perhaps he wasn’t dreaming of anything. But he did dream. He dreamt more than he ever had in the past, some of it good, some of it bad. Some of it so shattering that he would scream in the dead of night, only to be tamed by the gentle, compassionate touch of his driver. Jin’s words could not reach Malos in the depths of his worst nightmares. He didn’t mind that. He had his place: to hold him until Lora arrived and soothed him out of despair. He would whisper reassurances in Malos’s ear once he had calmed down, once Jin was certain he would hear his voice, too. These incidents happened more than Jin would have liked. He would prefer if they all slept peacefully, always; but that was impossible with histories like theirs. They all needed someone to pull them out of slumbering despair every now and then.

When Malos awoke from a good dream it was like gentle beams of moonlight filtering through the window, a quiet display of beauty made only for him. Malos was slow to wake and even slower to get out of bed, even when Lora called. She said that tendency had gotten worse ever since Jin had come home, and Jin could feel why: that extra weight tying him down with bulky arms wrapped around his back, pulling him in for kisses, ignoring the hungry pleas of both their stomachs, refusing to let Jin leave the bed. He didn’t know why it surprised him that Malos loved him so much. Maybe it was because Malos under Amalthus’s influence refused to let himself fully express anything other than anger; but the signs were there, Jin was just too…

No. He wasn’t going to go down that self-critical path tonight. He brought his hand down to rest on Malos’s core crystal, drawing his thoughts to the display of lights and color. The color of Malos’s core crystal hadn’t changed since Lora had become his driver, but it had gained tiny specks of light that made it look like the night sky. It was mesmerising, so mesmerising that Malos often reminded people that his eyes were much higher than where they were staring. Malos certainly wouldn’t mind that Jin was staring at it now.

The name Lora had given Malos, when he had suppressed memories… “Kibou”. It meant “hope”. Jin thought that was so ill-fitting when he first heard it. What sort of hope could Malos inspire? He blamed Malos for acts he committed, painted Malos as demon who coaxed him into the underworld--when all they had ever done was feed off each other’s misery. Still, accepting his part of the blame didn’t paint Malos as any more of a hopeful figure. Spending time with him like this, watching the person he strove to be now--those things did. He couldn’t help but feel guilty that he hadn’t done anything to draw out Malos’s better qualities before, or wonder what would have happened if he did, because the man Malos was now… A man still prone to anger, to recklessness, but now too to considerable warmth, to quiet acts of kindness, who had committed himself to walking down the path of recovery and redemption, no matter how hard the journey… If such a terrible creature like Malos could grow into a gentle man, then surely he, too…

He felt his eyelids droop, dragging with them his consciousness. As he drifted into sleep, his hand was captured in another’s, and slowly lifted up. Malos kissed his hand, and he fell into pleasant dreams.


End file.
